Plaza Watch! Billionaire Montana Philanthropist Buys $19 M. Spread

The Plaza is about as far away from Dennis J. Washington’s childhood hometown of Missoula Montana as you can get, so it’s a fitting place for the septuagenarian billionaire and self-styled Horatio Alger to spend his twilight years.

His wife Phyllis has paid nearly $19 million for a 19th floor-condo at the Plaza, city records show.

He lived in a government housing project, contracted polio when he was eight, then bounced around relatives’ homes until he was 14 and became self-sufficient. "His inspiring journey has been termed an American success story," the website says.

In a 2005 profile "The man with the Toys,"Forbes estimated Mr. Washington had amassed a fortune worth $2.5 billion "by buying broken companies, mostly ones involving large mechanical objects, and making them run better."

His privately held portfolio includes such diverse holdings as a copper mine in Butte, a 1,000-mile privately rail line, an aircraft supply business, a heavy-equipment dealership, and a fleet of 23 container ships, a few of which are as big as the aircraft carrier Nimitz.

But it hasn’t been a total buying spree since Mr. Washington began managing his first construction company in the 1960’s.

"In light of his extraordinary success, Dennis Washington recognizes a need to give back to the country and communities that made it possible," the website reads.

The Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation has donated over $38 million to various charities since 1988–including Young Life, an interdenominational Christian youth ministry–and was the premier sponsor of the Summer Special Olympic Games from 2003-2005.